Broken Miho: thanks a ton! I had no idea, really, so... I used the names of the voice actors. o.o;; Except for Bear - I think they pointed out his name was like Sakuma something in one of the fansubs, didn't they? Clever, clever. I'll make edits where appropriate, and keep those names in mind. ^^ But admittedly I am lazy so I haven't looped up the other names... So I'll take your advice on Tsukasa and Subaru, but for the sake of maintaining the AU theme thing going, everyone else gets alternate names. :/ Lazy Valefor, queen of the slackers.
Crystal17: and a whole bunch of thanks to you, too. :) Folks like you keep that grand circle of inspiration going 'round and 'round... It's really an honor to be admired by a talented author like yourself. Seriously. :O
And of course thanks to everyone else. :) A writer without an audience is nothing at all. Or something. ]]
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[ Chapter 2 : Whispers ]
Aimless, listless, restless. Rest? How do you sleep amid the talking-talking-talking? Quiet eludes me. It has to exist, it has to... Not in my place, there exists noises I do not wish to hear. Other places, the talk and chatter of fools. Thousands and thousands of voices cascading over my thoughts.
At last, a place of peace - hulking beasts wander the halls, plump with the flesh of the inexperienced. So I imagine (without reason, but I humor myself all the same). The chatter is much quieter here. A stray voice or two wandering the field above the dungeon.
Rest here. We settle, and wait.
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"Are you sure you don't mind?" An asked timidly. A cordless phone was held gently as if it were so fragile as to crumble if it did not have the full support of her hands.
Kazuhiro laughed and shook his head. "Not at all! You go on ahead and make whatever calls you need. I know how teenagers love their telephones."
Gratefully, An nodded and trotted up the stairs in search of a little privacy. Even though it had been a few months since she had first come to her new home and she had settled in quite well, she still had a tendency to ask permission for the simplest things. Kazuhiro thought it somewhat cute.
He turned back to the dishes that still demanded cleaning, turning the faucet back on and dipping his hands back into the soapy water. She was just as timid in real life as she had been in the game, but she had shown a healthy amount of chattiness on the few phone calls she had made since her arrival. Over dinner she had even mentioned maybe meeting up with Suba- no, Mariko at a nearby mall.
"She said that Shinichiro-san might show up too. Looks like everyone's been wanting to meet up with me now that I'm out."
"Shinichiro-san?" he asked, quirking his brow. He remembered the name, vaguely, from before he left to meet up with An.
"Crim. And he might bring BT - I forget her real name - and then I might talk to Mimiru..."
Kazuhiro smiled and toyed a bit with the spaghetti that sat on his plate. "So we might have to get everybody together, won't we?"
"Yeah, looks like it. Mariko-chan said she already talked to Ginkan, too, and he might try and take a day off of work if we can actually pull it off. Everybody but Helba and Sora has already been contacted."
He wound some noodles around a fork and chewed thoughtfully at it. "Helba doesn't surprise me... but Sora? I'd have thought he'd jump right on top of a chance to meet up with you."
Tsukasa-kun, let's be friends!
They both fell quiet, picking boredly at a few scraps of their food. An remembered the rage she felt behind Mother's voice, and the cool defiance Sora shielded them with... and then there was the monster.
"He was with us when we woke Aura up. I don't know about afterwards... He stayed behind when we went to the Net Slum."
There was a question written in her voice, one that Kazuhiro could pick up on easily. A deep unease, the notion that maybe something wasn't quite right. "Maybe he decided that being a troublemaker in a game wasn't all that it was cut out to be," he ventured.
The rest of dinner had been quiet. An simply shrugged and finished off her plate, and excused herself from the table to fetch the phone. He set the last of the plates onto the drying rack, deciding to let evaporation dry them off for him, and went into his study. It was tucked away in a crowded room beside the foot of the stairs. Wide double-doors opened into the living area, but the doors themselves were nowhere to be seen: more boxes and tall stacks of books kept them well hidden. He navigated through a jungle of untidyness to a desk decorated with piles of papers and a slightly aged computer. The one he used to use, a new one purchased recently on a whim, was currently up in An's room. He imagined that this one was nearly identical, except for a considerable lack of shine and cleanliness and a little less juice in its processor. The fans inside gave a strained whirr as he booted it up.
The ALTIMIT OS brought itself upon the screen, but he didn't even have to look to find the icon for The World on its interface. It was a matter of habit now - whenever he sat at the computer in his leisure time, The World was often the first thing he opened up. With deft keystrokes, he typed in his user ID and password, and prepared himself for a brief trip into The World.
The sudden log-off forced on by Helba reset his starting location to the water capital of Mac Anu. It felt strange logging in again without many worries about the well being of a certain individual. It would have been foolish to assume everything was well in The World, however, so he didn't.
Someone must have been paying attention to their member address list. He hardly took a step off the slightly raised platform that the town's Chaos Gate sat on before he felt the presence of another gating in just beside him. "It's been a while, Kuma-san. I trust she's doing well?" inquired a familiar stoic voice. The woman with golden locks and emerald robes strode up beside him, nodding curtly in greeting.
"Pretty well by the looks of it. No signs of trouble or anything like that."
They made their way towards an alleyway tucked behind one of the shops, where people rarely visit. An old haunt they used to share, back when Kazuhiro paid more attention to The World. There was nothing to be seen there except the river and a line of stone walls. BT leaned against one of the posts that stuck out from the ground, gazing at Bear with her dispassionate eyes. He could have sworn that he saw relief coiled within those orbs, but it was difficult to tell with one such as she - her mood was always so volatile.
"That's good to hear. You would hardly believe how worried Mimiru has been... Even Crim was wondering how she was. I didn't know what to tell him."
Bear gave her a grin, merciful by his standards. "Still chasing after him, are we?"
He was rewarded with a cattish sneer and the narrowing of her eyes. "He's good company. The only other I get usually is Mimiru, and Subaru from time to time... Kids. I can't spend all my leisure time with kids, can I?"
"What about Ginkan?"
"Do you even need to ask?" She shook her head and frowned up at the sky, more specifically at a feathery cloud that she had chosen to be her scapegoat for the moment. "Besides, judging from what Subaru has been suggesting, I might get to deal with him on the outside soon."
Bear chuckled as he found a place against the wall to lean against with his arms crossed over his vividly painted avatar's chest. "So you heard? It might be interesting, you know if we can actually pull it off. We managed to save Tsu-, erm, An, that is, but you know how getting a bunch of strangers together can be."
"Mimiru doesn't live too far away from me, and apparently Ginkan lives somewhere in your area, as does Subaru. Crim's got the most distance between his place and yours but that's what trains are for." When she noticed another grin warming up onto Bear's face she shrugged nonchalantly. "I've done a little bit of talking myself. Wouldn't want to miss out on anything big."
The Blademaster nodded. "I'm going to assume Helba hasn't made any plans to join us."
"Bingo. The same goes to Sora, too, but I assume no one will be heartbroken because of his absence."
"An mentioned that no one's been able to reach him for a while, not since the day she got out..."
"Don't do that."
Bear, taken aback, blinked. "Huh?"
BT was looking straight at him with a strange shade of intensity - not anger, nor apathy, but a dry brittle hint of amusement wrapped so flawlessly in emerald and glitter. "That, with your eyes. You're thinking, and what you're thinking is making you worry. It's not hard to read you, Bear, it never has been. He's probably just found something better to do. Do you remember how wishy-washy he was?"
Bear forced himself to nod. The faint ache that sat around his shoulders failed to leave him when he sighed. "Yeah... Yeah. It's just... hard to take some things lightly ever since that all happened."
Much to Bear's surprise, she reached over and gently touched his shoulder. "It's over now. Things are ok... Don't stress yourself out. It won't do you any good, trust me. You just keep An safe and happy, I'll give a talk to the others and I'll send you a message when we've got something worked out. Is this weekend open for you two?"
"Yes."
"Good. Plan to have company." Then abruptly she logged off, leaving him alone with his thoughts in the alley. Was it really going to happen...? And so soon, at that - Saturday was only a matter of days away. One by one a list of chores built up in his mind, one that quickly became a little too long for his liking but...
Kazuhiro shrugged and logged himself off of The World. The boxes that haunted the room watched as he rose and began rearranging them into neat stacks and stacks of stacks which he pushed up against the walls. Having a mess of a house wouldn't be very fitting of Bear, who thought himself a rather responsible and orderly person. A second, third, and fourth stack reaching up to the ceiling was pushed into a corner of the study, which took care of the ones in that room specifically. Mentally he tallied up rough estimates of the other miscellaneous things that could do with being tucked out of sight, and it took but a few seconds before his body began to sweat preemptively.
If a room is filled up with junk and a legion of boxes, but no one sees it, is it a mess? Out of sight is out of mind, so...
He rolled up his sleeves and set to work.
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Sora did not know if time had passed: perhaps he had fallen asleep somehow and the minutes and hours had gone on by. It felt more like everything, Time included, had been encased in cement. That would certainly explain the monochrome gray that surrou-
Someone was there.
(Tsukasa?)
A boy in orange, the first and last flame in the ashen hollows of the dungeon. Next to last. He was staring at the staff. It came to him then that he knew who the boy was. Orca spoke of him on many occasions. The boy spoke as well. Sora listened:
"- it still here? Skeith is gone... Orca? ... Yasuhiko, can you hear me? It's me, Kite. I heard people talk about seeing this thing but... Please, Yasuhiko, be there. I want to let you go home."
(Home, take me home. I'm hungry.)
Kite reached out toward the staff. Sora watched his fingers, suddenly very aware of their shape; numbers swam all around him, vines of code tailing code everywhere but on him. Pleading eyes stared hard into the heart of the staff, sad, human. Sad human. Sadly human. He felt cold again, frozen as he had been when Skeith took him. He shouldn't have been there, not this Twin Blade - who was he? He watched his friend get taken in, he struck down Skeith, but he had no meaning. He wasn't Tsukasa. But he didn't understand; such was the nature of ignorance. His fingers reached closer, cookie-cut from the rest of The World.
(Help me...)
The touch burned the burn of ice on naked flesh. Sora screamed soundlessly, recoiling from Kite to little avail: the staff bore it all unmoving, a glow permeating its surface. Little by little, beneath the pain, Sora felt the staff disintegrate. Threads ran off it, unwinding the whole like an old sweater. When it felt like he could take it no longer it stopped, dropping Sora into an exhausted numbness. The staff was gone.
(... Thank you...)
Sora looked (up, down, it was all the same) and saw himself. What he was once before, as fuzzy memories would tell him, wrought out in ethereal color. Kite stared, stunned and disbelieving... No. One long ago he learned to read the face like a picture book. He was disappointed. And he stayed disappointed even as the phantom-self nodded and faded away. He had been expecting Orca.
Cold meant nothing to him anymore. Everywhere at once, he shivered despite the obsoleteness of it (no body, no warmth), and knew far too well that Tsukasa-kun would not be looking.
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She had heard the blips too many times to recount, for too many hours to number. They no longer registered as outside noises, just the steady pattern of involuntary vibrations running through her hears. She didn't even have to look to know that it had no changed, and the doctors suggested deep in the occasional synopsis they would offer that it very well may never change again.
The woman was slouched back in a thickly cushioned seat that sat beside the bed that housed her son. Her eyes were closed but she could not sleep, not with the painful hiss of the respirators that hardly kept breath in his lungs. So she sat, empty with anguish and oblivious to everything but the respirators, deep into the night.
At some point she became aware. Eyes creaked open, fighting with the sting of insomnia. He had not moved, the machines were still working... Nothing had changed. Almost nothing: a mother's intuition was a keen and frightful thing when a child's life was at question. Confusion bled into frustration, and she started hard at the pale face that could not move.
Then she heard it. The green dot on the ECG leapt about frantically, and the blip-blip that accompanied it was racing. In an instant she was at the door, wrenching it open and screaming into the hall for a doctor, a nurse, a bloody janitor if there was one around. A nurse who was present in a neighboring room rushed out to her aid.
"The thing," the mother croaked. "The thing, it's not normal! What's going on?" She gestured frantically at the machines her son was hooked up to. "What's happening? Dear God, what's happening?"
The nurse hastily checked over the monitors, gradually looking more and more perplexed. The mother knew too, as it came as suddenly like being dropped in ice water. The discrepancy was no longer, the blip-blip returned to being a blip-blip, the green line bounced along lazily as it had before.
"Ma'am," the nurse started hesitantly, thumbing through words to say what needed to be said. "I know this must be a very trying time for you but maybe you should try and get some sleep..."
But she needn't be told. Already, the mother sunk back down into the cushiony seat, face sunk into the sleeves of the sweater she wore (still cold in spite of its presence), and sobbed.
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Little by little, excitement had been building up within the little white house in the middle of the street. Moving from room to room became less a test of balance and agility as boxes and random things were relocated into the study in an act that just had to defy some law of physics somewhere. The room had never looked all that big to start with, yet Sakuma-san was able to stuff an impossible amount of stuff in there with plenty of room to spare for the desk and some space to walk through.
"I may be something of a packrat but I'm not much of one. Did you notice a few of them have moved outside to sit on the curb? They're going to be adopted sometime next week," he said over a newspaper during breakfast.
Along with the clean up had come the restoration of a few rooms. For the most part, Kazuhiro had only kept up with the study, the living room, kitchen/dining room, bedroom, and bathroom. The remaining two free rooms (not including the second bathroom), one upstairs and another downstairs, as well as several hallways had served as repositories for the boxes. The room upstairs had been cleared out some time prior to An moving in and it currently served as her room. The other room was chiefly ignored by Kazuhiro, at least; An took the time to glance through some of the things once or twice, but she never found anything of interest. An sat in the room, which was now empty and much larger than she had remembered it. Without all the junk there, it was actually a decent sized rectangular room with a bay window that looked out into the backyard. Sun washed through the linen-curtained windows, basking her and the cream colored carpeting in warmth. Out back was a small yard that was dominated chiefly by an ancient tree with branches that arced down to cover much of the ground in its shade. At its foot was a small fountain with a waterfall, all constructed out of large smooth stones. She had gone out to get a closer look at it once before and was pleasantly surprised to find koi swimming around inside.
Presently, Kazuhiro was out in the small storage shed snuggled against the corner of the back fencing in search for some chairs. The dining area was dominated by a large circular table, which was dominated in turn by an electric griddle. Lunch was just a short while away, and with a party of five coming in, what better way to feed everyone than to have a yakiniku* party? A whole stockpile of meats and veggies sat waiting in the fridge. All that was missing were the people who were due to show up any minute now.
The phone rang. An nearly jumped out of her skin: the telephones Sakuma-san had were old fashioned and were fixed with actual bells that rang very very loudly. She dashed into the living room after recovering from the surprise to answer it. "Hello?"
"Ah, An-chan?" said a quiet voice on the other end. An immediately recognized it as belonging to Mariko, who was alternately known as Subaru.
"Mariko-chan! How are you? You all didn't get lost did you?"
"No, we're all fine. Could you do us a favor and open the door, please?"
An started for the front door but halted in the entry hall, eyeing it suspiciously. "You're here?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Why didn't you just ring the doorbell?"
"... Ah, well, Shinichiro-san said this might be a little more dramatic..."
"Oh. Well, um, see you in a second." She hung the phone back up on it's cradle and returned to the door. Her hand brushed against the doorknob but she hesitated to open it. It was really happening... She was going to meet the people who had helped her, and who had practically saved her life. An took a deep breath, exhaled, and pulled the door open.
On the porch was a small crowd, but the face that headed them up was the only one that An knew. Mariko smiled up at An with her sober smile. "We're here!"
Standing behind her was a tall man in slacks and a collared shirt that was left un-tucked. To either side were two women: one was young, probably a little younger than An herself, wearing shorts and a tank top, and the other older woman was more conservatively dressed in a long skirt and a crisp long-sleeved blouse. Straggling behind was a man probably a big younger than the first, who wore a simple jeans and t-shirt combo. An went breathless: these were real human beings, lacking the garb and weaponry they usually toted around in The World... Real, live people...
She stopped herself from staring, stepping aside from the doorway and gesturing towards the inside of the house. "Please, come inside! I think we have lots to talk about and we might as well get everyone comfortable."
One by one they filed in, taking off shoes and setting them on the stone tiled floor right by the door. From the back of the house she heard Kazuhiro call out, "Hey! Everyone's here?" He was setting chairs around the table in the dining area beside the kitchen. "Well, if anyone's hungry I can get lunch started in just a minute... We can get everyone properly introduced, too."
Everyone took places around the table quietly. Mariko stayed by An, of course, who sat next to where Kazuhiro would be once he finished passing out bowls, plates, and chopsticks. A number of the plates held side dishes; on one, a salad of sliced roasted squid, another a helping of kimchee*... Rice and a dish of yakiniku sauce were passed out, as well as drinks. Soon the griddle was alive with the crackle-snap of food cooking. Kazuhiro took his seat and spoke first, bringing business down among them.
"I hope the trip was enjoyable for you all, and I hope that this visit will be as well. The place is a little small but... I like to think of it as nice and cozy. But anyway, I suppose we should get to the introductions. My name is Kazuhiro Sakuma, but you might know me better as Bear. Nice to meet you all again." He nodded around the table and sat down, touching An upon the shoulder: your turn. She stood then, smiling timidly at the group.
"Hello everyone. My name is An Shouji...I'm, uh, Tsukasa. Sort of. Nice to meet you."
The baton was passed on to Mariko, who... couldn't quite stand up. So instead, she bowed her head. Violet hair swept down around her shoulders. "My name is Mariko Misato, as well as Subaru. Pleased to meet you."
Beside her was the other young woman, who had short brown hair that flared out just above the shoulders. Bright glittery amber eyes lit up her face just as much as the cheery smile that flashed across her lips. "Hiya! I'm Megumi Toyoguchi, also known as Mimiru-chan!"
Another shift, this time ending up on the man with the jeans. He was a very simple looking young man, perhaps a few years older than An, with a sharp jaw line and neatly combed dark brown hair. "Isshin Chiba... I'm Ginkan. Pleasure to meet you."
The other man, who wore a very feline expression on the defined features of his face (not too unlike a certain Long Arm) nodded politely. "The Crimson Lightning himself, the esteemed Shinichiro Miki."
And finally, it was the older woman's turn to speak. Her vivid green eyes peered at each of the others nonchalantly. "Akiko Hiramatsu, otherwise known as BT."
Kazuhiro reached out with chopsticks in hand, nudging things that were done and things that needed more cooking around upon the griddle. "It's certainly a delight meeting all of you finally. Please, dig right in! The food isn't going to eat itself, you know."
Megumi looked more than happy with the invitation. She held her chopsticks up high as if she were preparing for a toast, and she smiled wildly as the rest followed suit. All at once they gave a hearty "Ittadakimaaaaaaasu!" and dove in to the feast set before them.
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Kazuhiro's face was brighter than An ever remembered it being. The house was alive with conversation and laughter, with more activity than there had been in what was undoubtedly a very long time. The same was true for An. There was hardly ever a time where she didn't at least have a vague grin of contentment on her face, but that was different from being happy. Kazuhiro knew that very, very well.
The group eventually migrated into the living room but the younger girls had segregated themselves into the backyard where they lounged about the waterfall fountain like a trio of pixies. Being cooped up with adults, as interesting as they may be, just wasn't any fun.
Besides, girls had girl talk.
"So what's he like?" asked a very inquisitive Megumi. She was sprawled out in the grass with her hands tucked beneath the back of her head. Strips of light crossed her body, crudely mimicking the tattoos she wore as a Heavy Blade.
An and Mariko sat beside the waterfall, occasionally giving the water's surface a good poke to see where the koi would dash off to. "What do you mean?" An asked back.
"Does he like... Give you privacy? Is he all nosy? Does he take you shopping? You know, what's he like?"
"He's nosy when he needs to be, I guess. Like every time we go shopping - we've been going every other weekend or so - he always has to ask, 'An, do you have enough underwear? An, do you need some new outfits? An, how about some shoes? An, maybe some CDs?'"
Megumi sat up a little, holding herself up by the elbows. "Are you serious? I wish my old man was like that! I always have to ask him for stuff but even then he's all like, 'What do you need that for? How much is that? Don't you have another pair just like that?' UGH, it's annoying."
"It sounds nice, sure, but..."
Mariko looked up from the fish with a knowing smile. "It gets overbearing sometimes, being... mothered like that."
"Exactly! He's nice and everything but he worries too much."
Megumi would simply not be dissuaded. Sighing deeply, she just plopped herself back down and pouted her lower lip out at the swaying leaves above. "That's how you know they love you."
That's right, An thought. Dad never did any of those things... The years after her mother died had been hard on both of them. She knew, though, that she was lucky: rather that she experience a tragedy when she was young and hopeful... But even then, the ever-pressing question of "why?" was a source of torment. Her father...
"It's a shame Sora couldn't make it," Mariko said thoughtfully. "Akiko-san and Isshin-san might have started fights, though..."
"Baah, good riddance. I bet he's just as annoying out here as he is in there," snorted Megumi.
"That may be the case, but isn't it a little weird that he would just... disappear like that? After finally getting what he wanted..."
Friendship. Sora had a strange way of showing it but it looked like all he was really after, in regards to Tsukasa, was... friendship. An frowned, tracing circles into the water. Fish scattered indignantly, silently voicing their irritation with the swish of brilliant colored scales. The fact that he had been there worried her greatly... How could he have known what was there? And then distracting "Mother" like that... An knew first hand that she did not like being defied. Involuntarily, she shivered. "Hey... I don't suppose that maybe... She did something to him?"
That caught their attention. Even Megumi, who was twirling a freshly plucked blade of grass between her fingers, sat up all the way and looked hard at An. "You mean like...?"
An nodded. "I... don't really remember how I got stuck in the first place... But She was there from the start. She must have had something to do with it..."
"There was something I noticed when I was going to meet you," said Mariko. "We were walking to the hospital and an ambulance went by... It was going away from the hospital. And just as we were getting close to the front gates that same ambulance passed us again and pulled into the drop-off area. That was just a little while after the Net Slum incident..."
"As I was leaving, an ambulance came in. They were pulling in a gurney... A whole bunch of nurses and doctors were rushing it along, I guessed because it was a little boy on it..."
The three girls looked at each other uneasily, every one feeling the thickening dread wrapping about their hearts. It didn't make sense, but it made perfect sense: a path of logic outright rejected by hopeful hearts. Megumi was shaking her head, disbelieving but feeling something there that strung everything together. "That couldn't be..."
Mariko took An's hand and pointed towards the house with urgency. "We should tell Sakuma-san. If that is Sora..."
"Then we owe it to him to help," An nodded. A familiar determination filled her words, the same tone she used that day when they found Aura. "Since the possibility exists, we have to make sure."
Megumi rolled to her feet and slid open the patio door. "Then I guess we gotta go, and hope that it's some weird coincidence...."
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[[ Edited 12-9-03: spelling, grammar. Might have missed some. :/
*yakiniku = grilled meat, literally. :o yummy stuff. toss some veggies in there and you've got good eatin'.
*kimchee = Korean... stuff. usually smells kinda funny, at least the kimchee that my mother adores. :(
*ittadakimasu = basically, 'let's eat!' :) something along those lines anyway. ]]